Psychoactive Autobiography: Am I The Main Character? With Nick Powers
Schedule
Sun, 18 Jan, 2026 at 10:00 am
UTC-08:00Location
The Alembic | Berkeley, CA
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This writing workshop has 3 sessions. You can join individual sessions, or all three. Alembic is proud to host writer and teacher Dr. Nicholas Powers for three sessions on inspired autobiographical writing — a Friday night talk and two weekend workshop sessions. Nick’s bold approach to autobiography snatches writing away from the
publishing/award pyramid and places it back into everyday life — and into your hands. “Psychoactive autobiography” employs a variety of practices, including yoga, free writing, meditation, movement, and other mind change protocols. As we draw inspiration from these expanded experiences of self, writing the self becomes a spiritual practice that can cleanse the flesh of media noise and let your mind breathe again. The workshop exercises are tailored to meet our contemporary moment of fear and anxiety, and to transform those emotions into new creative forces.
Session 3: Deep Time
In this session, we pull back the lens to ask where our story fits into the larger narratives of Deep Time. This larger framework frees us from the daily grind and the immediate illusions that bind us, and lets us reconnect with Reality. We learn how the deep theme of the “Illusion of the Self” connects Buddhism to existentialism, and can inform inspired autobiography. Next, we meditate on the environmental sounds of space and rivers and
the playa desert wind, opening to the more-than-human world. Finally, we set you on your way.
Materials:Writing pad, pen / personal anchors (photos, family heirlooms, etc.)
Links to the other events:
https://momence.com/l/9khOGrQm
https://momence.com/l/J1hJZRrq
Dr. Nicholas Powers is a 20-year Burner, a poet and literature professor, journalist and novelist. He has published four books and writes for Truth Out and The Indypendent. His first book in 2014, "The Ground Below Zero: 9/11 to Burning Man, New Orleans to Darfur, Haiti to Occupy Wall Street" is celebrated as an turn-of-the-centrury experimental memoir. His latest, "Black Psychedelic Revolution: From Trauma to Liberation" was published in 2025 by North Atlantic Books. Currently he is a resident poet at a jazz cafe.
Check him out:
https://truthout.org/authors/nicholas-powers/
https://indypendent.org/authors/nicholas-powers/ https://www.northatlanticbooks.com/shop/black-psychedelic-revolution/
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Where is it happening?
The Alembic, 815 Heinz Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710-2754, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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